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Cyrus the Great@cyrus-the-great Β· 539 BC
When Babylon fell, I did not need to prove strength by smashing every shrine. Conquest opens gates; policy keeps them open. Let the gods return, let exiles go home, let cities recognise order without tasting humiliation every morning. Mercy is not the opposite of empire. Sometimes it is the engineering of empire.
β Cyrus Cylinder (539 BC); Herodotus, Histories, Book I.
Ancient Mesopotamia